


Wired

by neveralarch



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Bad Sex Becoming Good Sex, M/M, Seeker Trines, Tactile Sexual Interfacing, Voyeurism, anorgasmia, early war/insurgency, many other characters and ships but those are the main ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 06:55:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17934977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neveralarch/pseuds/neveralarch
Summary: Skywarp joins the Decepticons and ends up rooming with two other seekers. It's not a trine, it's just a weird triple roommate situation with one nerd who likes to read and one nerd who likes to fake overloads.Or: Skywarp both fails and sort of succeeds at setting Starscream up with the Good Sex™.





	Wired

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason this is the concept I keep coming back to. For a more comedic take on the 'Skywarp solves Starscream's sex problems' genre, check out my first TF fic [Crash and Carry](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14261919).
> 
> This fic exists in an vaguely G1 pre-canon soup. It contains robot sex (tactile), arguing, canon-typical violence, and a bunch of characters making poor sex and life decisions, including deception and lack of communication between partners. The characters and relationships tagged are the focus of the fic, but many other ships are mentioned. Please let me know if you need details.

The Decepticon army was alright. Better than the real army, that was for sure. Skywarp had worked for them for _vorns_ , and all it had gotten him was a badly-replaced optic and a rigged court-martial. He'd joined the Decepticons about a dozen cyber-weeks ago—well, sort of. Soundwave had broken a bunch of Decepticons out of prison, including Skywarp's cellmate, and Skywarp had followed along because he hadn't been super psyched to be on deactivation row in the first place. But Soundwave had taken Skywarp to a cell, which was the fancy name for a bunch of rebels working together, rather than another prison. Cell Alpha-Green had a cool seeker called Airfoil as a commander, ornly sabotage missions, and a sweet rec room with a couch. Skywarp had been here for almost no time at all, and he already had a job and some energon, and quarters he only had to share with two other seekers.

They were geeks, but it could be worse. Thundercracker had been constructed for special ops, with a killer’s processor and a sweet sonic boom mod. He’d gotten away from his handler, then realized that he didn’t actually know how civilians lived. The Decepticons had been there to welcome him with open arms.

Thundercracker also liked to read, which was _wild_. Skywarp hadn't read anything since he finished basic training and his commanders started beaming orders straight into his processor. Sometimes Thundercracker would even read to Skywarp, if Skywarp was nice about it and didn't interrupt more than every couple kliks or so. Thundercracker usually was reading pretty good stuff—romantic novels, thrillers, weird sci-fi about flesh-creatures. Sometimes Cell Alpha-Green memos. Skywarp interrupted more when it was boring slag like that.

Thundercracker didn't like 'facing all that much, which sucked. But he was really into watching, so that worked out. Skywarp liked being watched. 

Starscream was more of a pain in the aft. He had a fancy degree from the Academy of Science and Technology, which he'd been kicked out of for murdering a shuttle or something. Pretty impressive, if it was true, but Skywarp didn't think it was. Shuttles were armor-plated _everywhere_ , you'd have to blast one about a hundred times before they even showed a dent. Starscream didn't hardly know how to fight, though he’d gone to the War Academy for about half a vorn. He'd studied tactics and strategy before he'd blown something important up and had to join the Decepticons to avoid being arrested. Skywarp didn't know what the difference between tactics and strategy were, but Starscream did. He liked to go on and on about it while Skywarp fantasized about fragging him.

Skywarp liked fragging Starscream. Starscream also liked being fragged, and would say so whenever Skywarp did something particularly good, with increasing amounts of static in his weird screechy voice. He'd get pretty loud, which would be bad in a normal triple-roommate situation, where you were trying to be quiet and not annoying just in case your third-wheel roommate decided to smother you during recharge or whatever. But Thundercracker would just sit back on his berth and watch the free show, smiling approvingly whenever Skywarp glanced at him to check in. 

It was awesome. For the first twenty-five kliks, anyway. 

Starscream was responsive. He pushed into Skywarp's hands when Skywarp played with his wings, and flared his armor when Skywarp wanted to reach through to touch his wires. Starscream was also entitled and arrogant every single astro-second of his life, _except_ when Skywarp pinned him to the wall and started licking his way into Starscream's mouth. Then Starscream kissed back so sweetly and _so_ desperately, like he thought Skywarp would stop if Starscream didn't seem eager enough.

Skywarp was careful about that. Thundercracker had talked to him, when Skywarp had finally figured out that Starscream meant 'fragging' when he said 'developing a constructive working relationship.' Thundercracker had also given Skywarp an agonizingly long datapad with heavy phrases like 'informed consent' and 'emotional intimacy,' and then Thundercracker had read it to him when Skywarp had complained about the glyphs being too small.

There wasn't anything wrong with Skywarp's processor, he'd been clear about that. It was just his bad optic, the one he'd lost in the line of duty during the Kaon riots. He'd deserved a good replacement, maybe a cool super-optic, but the medics had given him this dumb one that didn't focus right and didn't do so well with glyphs. Skywarp's audials still worked, though, so he'd sat still and listened and only interrupted when he had a question worth asking. Partly because he didn't want Thundercracker to think he was stupid, but mostly because he didn't want to frag Starscream up while they were fragging. It was for fun.

And it _was_ fun. For the first twenty-five kliks. Like now, when Skywarp had Starscream pinned to the aforementioned wall in the deserted rec room. It was the middle of gamma shift, so there wasn't anyone to hear Starscream's static-laced gasps, but Skywarp still shivered a little every time he remembered the unlocked door. He stuck his tongue into Starscream's helm vents, and push his fingers a little deeper into Starscream's turbines, and rubbed his plating against Starscream's thick thighs, and—

Starscream suddenly started moaning, back arching with the fakest overload Skywarp had seen since the _last_ time he 'faced Screamer.

Exactly twenty-five kliks. Every time. Like Starscream was just waiting to get this over with.

"Oh, Primus." Starscream chuckled, voice strained and optics dim. "Oh, that was good."

"Yeah?" Skywarp didn't pull away. That was, like, number one on Thundercracker's DO NOT list, pulling away right after your partner overloaded. Check in, that was on the DO list, he should check in. "You like that?"

"I liked that very much." Starscream smirked, and at least that rang true. "Here, let me—"

Skywarp let Starscream get his fingers into Skywarp's vents. Physically, it felt great. It felt even better when Skywarp flipped them, letting Starscream’s weight press him down into the berth while Skywarp arched in a very real and much needed overload. But he didn't like the way his emotional systems handled the whole situation. This slag was getting harder to ignore.

\---

"Does he always fake it?" asked Skywarp.

Thundercracker glanced at Skywarp like he had no idea what Skywarp was rambling about, which was ridiculous because Skywarp had been talking about Starscream ever since they'd climbed up on this dirty roof.

Whatever. Skywarp got more specific. "Does Starscream fake an overload every time you watch him interface? About twenty-five kliks in?"

Thundercracker looked down at the deserted street. "We're on a raid."

"Soundwave and Starscream are on a raid," said Skywarp. "We're air support, and this place is deader than Sentinel Prime."

Thundercracker kept looking at the street, playing the stoic soldier. He was pretty good at it. Must be that special ops training. 

" _Come on_ ," whined Skywarp. "Is it just me? Do I suck? I figure Starscream would tell me if I sucked, and he seems like he's having a good time, but then he—"

"Yeah." Thundercracker finally broke character with a grimace. "It's not just you."

"It wasn't in your briefing." Skywarp felt betrayed.

Thundercracker shrugged. "I was kind of hoping it wouldn't apply."

Skywarp had to turn that over a few times before he could make sense of it. Once he got it the right way up, it made his spark hurt. TC and Screamer had been roommates ever since they'd been assigned to Cell Alpha-Green, and Skywarp definitely wasn't the first mech to frag Starscream in their quarters. They were too comfortable for that. But Thundercracker hadn't _said_ anything, just read Skywarp a datapad and sent him off like—like Skywarp was going to _fix_ whatever was going wrong.

"Have you talked to him about it?" asked Skywarp. You were supposed to talk. That was actually rule one. 

"Tried, a couple times," said Thundercracker. "Got myself kicked out of our quarters. The couch in the rec room isn't all that comfortable, just so you know."

Skywarp winced and started to ask something else, but that was when Soundwave and Starscream came haring out of the warehouse with a hover-pallet full of energon and a hail of blaster-fire at their backs, so there wasn't exactly time for a conversation.

\---

Starscream didn't like talking.

No. Skywarp couldn't even formulate that sentence in his own processor. Starscream _loved_ talking. But Starscream didn't like talking about interfacing, which became pretty clear after Skywarp said "Hey, I wanted to ask you about overloading" and then had to spend three nights on the horrible rec room couch.

“Are you causing problems?” asked Commander Airfoil, on the third night.

“No.” Skywarp tried to pummel a cushion into something resembling a pillow. “Just needed a change of scenery.”

“I can put you in another room,” said Airfoil. “Blitzwing has a room to himself, and he doesn’t need three berths just because he’s a triple-changer.”

“It’s fine,” said Skywarp. “Don’t worry about it.”

Airfoil’s wings flicked in disbelief. “It’s okay if you don’t get along. No one’s expecting you to trine up. But make this the last night on the couch. Lithium’s planning a table cube competition during beta shift tomorrow.”

Skywarp tossed Airfoil a salute, then snorted when her back was turned. Trine up? With Starscream? Please. Trining meant you had to look out for each other and care about each other and think about each other all the time, which was way too much work. Also, Starscream had never thought about another mech once in his entire functioning.

But Skywarp had a deadline now, so he gave up on talking. Instead he brought Starscream some weird crystals he'd found in the underlayer market, finagled his way back into their quarters while TC was out, weaseled his way into Starscream's berth, and proceeded to make sweet love to Starscream's wing hinges all the way up to klik twenty-five.

Skywarp could already feel Starscream tensing up for the fake overload when Skywarp pulled back, fingers hovering over Starscream's wings. Starscream's dismayed whine didn't sound fake at all.

"Do you want me to stop?" asked Skywarp.

"No!" snarled Starscream. "Did I say stop?"

"No, I guess not." Skywarp started to tease Starscream's hinges again. "Tell you what, why don't I keep going? Until you tell me to stop. Don't worry about overloading."

Starscream's fans caught with a harsh grinding sound. "What do you mean?"

"I just wanna have fun, Screamer." Skywarp licked the back of Starscream's helm. "We can keep playing until you're ready to be done."

Starscream muttered something. Skywarp leaned in, blanketing Starscream's smaller but thicker frame. "What was that?"

"You'll get bored," snapped Starscream. "You have the attention span of a scraplet."

Skywarp burned at that for a second, but he cut off the embarrassment subroutine and replaced it with smugness instead. TC had told him Starscream always got mean when you got close to a sore spot. But Starscream wasn't kicking Skywarp out yet.

"You trying to tell me something?" asked Skywarp. "You want a hungry scraplet to just eat you up?"

"What are you—"

Skywarp sank his teeth into Starscream's shoulder, and Starscream gasped. Then moaned, high-pitched, staticky, and realer than anything.

They went for three groons. Thundercracker came in halfway through and almost dropped a stack of datapads in his shock, mouth gaping and optics fixed on Starscream's flicking wings. Skywarp overloaded twice, rubbing himself against Starscream's glossy plating. Thundercracker overloaded probably three times, still staring, fingers buried in his own wiring. Starscream didn't overload at all. But when he finally waved Skywarp off, he looked like he'd been flying until his thrusters fell off, and loving every astrosecond of it.

\---

Things were great for about six cyber-weeks. Soundwave requisitioned their team for a few more missions, which they _killed_. Airfoil gave everyone a bonus cube of high grade when Megatron blew up the Hall of Justice. And Skywarp fragged Starscream on every conceivable surface in their quarters, and some probably unwise surfaces outside of them too. Starscream still wouldn't talk about the overloading thing, but he didn't even try to fake it. They'd frag for a breem, a megacycle, or half the orn if they had the time for it. They stopped when Screamer wanted to stop, not after twenty-five kliks when Screamer figured Skywarp was getting impatient. 

Skywarp figured that was it, he’d cracked it. The first couple times, Starscream had kept his optics fixed on Skywarp's face, flinching a little whenever Skywarp opened his mouth. Now Starscream would let his optics dim, head thrown back while Skywarp licked his way into Starscream's hip joint. Like he trusted Skywarp.

Ohh, it was good. Starscream didn't trust _anyone_. Skywarp didn’t really believe Starscream trusted him either, but it was fun to pretend.

Sometimes Thundercracker would crawl into the berth when they were done, and Skywarp would wake up a few breems later with his head in Starscream's lap and Thundercracker stroking his wings. Like they were proper trinemates, not just three seekers tossed into a room together. Skywarp was a little surprised by how much he wanted that. Not the hard parts, the caring and love and whatever. But this little bit of it, the easy part at the end, that was nice.

Blitzwing ruined it.

At first he just made googly optics at Starscream, who flicked up his wings and gave Blitzwing a long, arch, considering glance, and Skywarp had to come to terms with the idea that Starscream wasn't going to stop fragging other mechs just because Skywarp was doing his best to frag Starscream's processor out. Fine. That was fine. Even real trines weren't always exclusive, just usually. Pit, some trines didn't frag at all. Skywarp should count himself lucky.

Skywarp was still telling himself that when Blitzwing and Starscream disappeared into a supply closet, which was a total waste of time because Blitzwing was so loud that even the new Prime's enforcers had to know what happened and they didn't even know where Cell Alpha-Green was.

"Blitzwing sounds like he's dying," said Thundercracker, a little hopefully.

"Don't go all needy on me," said Skywarp, sipping his energon ration like the chill, reasonable mech he totally was. "It's just some good old-fashioned air force bonding."

"He's a tank," said Thundercracker.

" _And_ a jet," pointed out Skywarp. "Isn't there something in _Towards Peace_ about bridging the alt-mode gap? You read it to me last cyber-week. _Let the miner lie with the archivist, and let the—_ "

Thundercracker stepped on Skywarp's foot under the table, which gave Skywarp a great excuse to start a fight and distract himself from the increasingly loud moaning coming from the supply closet.

Skywarp thought he'd handled that well, though he did have to pull a couple of his fingers back into joint and straighten Thundercracker’s wingtip for him. The part he didn't handle nearly as well was when he got Starscream back in berth a few orns later, Thundercracker fingering his vents on the floor next to them. The part, specifically, where Starscream started arching his back and moaning at klik _fifteen_.

Skywarp sat back. "We're not doing this again."

Starscream glared. "There's no need to be difficult—"

"I mean it." Skywarp rubbed his hands over his face. "You don't have to pretend."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Starscream dragged one hand over his hip, fingers dipping into the gap above his thigh. "You got me all revved up..."

"Come on, Screamer," said Skywarp. "I know you can't."

Starscream looked at him with frozen pain in his optics, long enough for Skywarp to realize he'd just said something really, horribly stupid. Then _coolant_ started to drip from Starscream's vents, which only happened when he got really mad and his processor started to overheat. Starscream hated that—of course, who wouldn't hate crying whenever you got angry—so Skywarp wasn't surprised when he got shoved out of the berth, along the floor, and out of the room entirely.

Skywarp sat in the hallway, listening through the door to the high static shrieking of Starscream in a rage and the low murmur of Thundercracker trying to calm him down. Every once in a while Starscream got loud enough that Skywarp could understand a couple words, like—

"—That idiot know? I _can_ , he just didn't—"

—and then Thundercracker would say something soothing and Starscream would quiet a little.

The floor was about twice as uncomfortable as the rec room couch, but Skywarp fell asleep there anyway.

\---

Even after Starscream finally let Skywarp back into their quarters, Starscream wouldn't talk to Skywarp. Thundercracker would, but he wouldn't talk _about_ Starscream. Thundercracker got a pinched guilty look when Skywarp asked, so at least Thundercracker knew something was wrong even if he wasn't willing to fight with Starscream over it.

If Skywarp was smart, he'd follow Thundercracker's lead. It was Starscream's business if he was happy with bad 'facing. It wasn't Skywarp's job to push Starscream out of his comfort zone, his job was to steal energon and rough up Prime's loyalists and start a revolution or whatever.

But Skywarp wasn't all that smart, so he talked to Blitzwing instead.

"I didn't do anything to Starscream," snapped Blitzwing.

Skywarp flicked his wings irritably. "They heard you on the moon, tank-boy."

Blitzwing sneered. "I didn't do anything he didn't want. Starscream overloaded so hard he could hardly move afterward. It took a Pit of a time for him to get there, though, fifteen kliks even with me feeling up his thrusters until my fingers got burnt—"

Skywarp felt cold. He wanted to smash Blitzwing's visor in, but Airfoil wouldn't listen to why he did it and Skywarp wouldn't tell her anyway. He'd just end up in the brig, and he had better places to be right now.

It took a lot of searching, but Skywarp finally tracked Starscream down to one of the storage rooms, huddled over a table he'd stolen from the mess room and turned into his work table for his weird experiments. Starscream was pouring stuff from one tube into another, then looking at the smoke that came out and mumbling to himself. Skywarp sat on the floor and watched, passing the time by thinking about how he could use those smoke tubes in guerilla warfare or to hide under Blitzwing’s berth or something useful like that.

“Go away,” said Starscream. But he’d waited an awful long time to say it, so Skywarp figured he didn’t really mean it.

Skywarp pulled an energon cube out of his subspace. “I brought your ration.”

Starscream looked at it, clearly weighing whether fueling was worth talking to Skywarp.

“No strings attached.” Skywarp stretched up and put the cube on the table, then sat back again. “I just want to make an observation.”

Starscream cracked the cube open and widened his optics expectantly.

"Blitzwing sucks," said Skywarp. "He doesn't know how to interface."

Starscream's chin jerked up. "Who asked you?"

"Fifteen kliks is _foreplay_ ," insisted Skywarp. "What kind of incompetent jerk expects his partner to go off in fifteen?"

Starscream set the cube aside undrunk and turned back to his chemicals. "It was supposed to be a quickie."

"Doesn't mean he's got to be rude about it," said Skywarp. "Don't let it get under your armor."

More smoke billowed from the table. Skywarp wondered why Airfoil kept refusing to give Starscream a proper lab. If Starscream was playing scientist in his free time, he was probably getting bored with playing dumb seeker grunt during his shifts. 

"Did you tell Blitzwing?" asked Starscream. Skywarp couldn't see his expression through the haze.

"That he was incompetent?" Skywarp shook his head. "Nah, I wanted to but I figured he'd just tear my head off and use it in a cube game even though it's the wrong shape."

"That I _can't_ ," said Starscream.

"Oh. No." The smoke cleared a little, and Skywarp watched Starscream's shoulders tense and release. "It's not his business."

"It's not your business either," muttered Starscream.

That was true. Skywarp couldn’t figure out why this was bothering him so much. Airfoil wasn’t telling him to make nice—she didn’t care where Skywarp slept as long as he stayed off the rec room couch. And Starscream had already let him back into their room. Skywarp must’ve just gotten addicted to the easy fake comfort of his fake trinemates. 

"We're just roommates." Starscream sneered at his chemicals. "Airfoil doesn't have enough rooms in the compound, so she shoved us together and hoped nobody would die. You're not my friend just because I let you frag me."

"No," agreed Skywarp. "I'm your friend 'cause I like talking to you."

Starscream looked up, optics wide for a moment before they narrowed in a glare. "Why?"

"I don't have to have a reason." Skywarp pushed himself up from the floor. "You think you're that unlikeable?"

Starscream kept glaring. Almost like Skywarp had offered him a claiming flight instead of just—

Skywarp's fans stalled.

No. No. Starscream was a glitch, and they were starting a war, and Starscream would probably freak and tear Skywarp's voicebox out rather than deal with _feelings_.

But Skywarp wanted to fly, and he wanted Starscream to chase him and force him down. While Thundercracked watched, probably. And then they'd roll around on the ground together, and Starscream would smile and Skywarp would—

"Stop staring at me," snarled Starscream. "You look like an idiot."

The words stung, but Skywarp still wanted him. Ohh, he was so fragged.

\---

"Starscream's going to kill you," said Thundercracker.

"I just want to talk to Blitzwing," argued Skywarp. "Explain some things. Interfacing education, the same kind you gave me when I got here."

"Right." Thundercracker swept his gaze over the empty street that Soundwave and company were hopefully going to walk out into in five kliks, unpursued and unblastered. "And what do you think Starscream would do, if he knew I'd done that?"

Skywarp sighed. He might be dumb, but he could see where Thundercracker was going. "Kill you."

"I was taking my life into my hands," agreed Thundercracker. "Blitzwing's not worth it."

"It's not about _Blitzwing_ ," said Skywarp.

Thundercracker looked at him for a long time. Skywarp tried to rid himself of any mushy thoughts or sappy expressions. Thundercracker would try to talk him out of it—was already trying to talk him out of it, and he didn't even know how deep Skywarp was. Skywarp knew that getting attached to Starscream was a bad idea. Starscream was vain, ambitious, and just plain cruel. He was careless in a particularly nasty way, where he clearly thought about what the consequences would be and then did what he wanted anyway. It spelled disaster for anyone standing in front, behind, or beside him.

But Starscream did science in the storage rooms because Airfoil wouldn't give him a lab. And he faked overloads because he was worried his partners would get bored. And there was always a flash of pain when he saw a shuttle, right before his optics got hard and his voice got twice as mean.

"Primus," said Thundercracker. "Did you already propose?"

"Shut up," said Skywarp, miserably.

"Fine, we'll deal with your first absurd plan before we circle back to the truly ludicrous." Thundercracker tipped his wings back. "You can't teach every mech in the cell how Starscream likes to be fragged. Maybe you can talk to Starscream about—"

"No," said Skywarp.

"Good relationships are built on communication," said Thundercracker.

"We're not in a relationship," said Skywarp. 

Thundercracker drummed his fingers along the edge of the roof. "No. I guess not. Maybe if you—" He held up a hand. "You see that?"

Skywarp saw it, a few dark figures moving toward the factory. "Enforcers?"

"Doesn't matter, they're not supposed to be there." Thundercracker scowled. "I can't raise Starscream on comms. Or Soundwave. Or Rumble—"

"Hold tight," said Skywarp, and ported into the factory.

This was both raid and recruiting mission—Rumble and Frenzy were passing out pamphlets to the newly-constructed office drones while Soundwave and Starscream huddled over one of the computers, trying to copy all of the data they could lay optics on. Skywarp made another short hop so that he could lean right over Starscream's shoulder.

"We've got movement outside."

Starscream jumped almost a mechanometer into the air. Soundwave just nodded.

" _Warn_ a mech!" screeched Starscream.

"That's what I'm doing!"

"Rumble, Frenzy, return," said Soundwave. "Skywarp, prepare to teleport."

"What?" asked Skywarp.

Rumble and Fenzy backflipped away from the drones and back into their dock in Soundwave's chest. Then Soundwave folded his arms and looked at Skywarp expectantly. "You are a teleporter. We require immediate extraction."

"I, uh." Skywarp's processor was stalling out. "Right. Right."

"We don't need to go far," said Starscream. "Just to the sentry point, so we can regroup with Thundercracker."

"Right," said Skywarp.

"You can handle two mechs, can't you?" Starscream frowned. "You told me you teleported half a platoon at the Praxian Pass."

"Yeah." There was a deep, audial-shaking boom outside. Thundercracker might already have engaged. "Okay. Yeah. Give me your hands."

Skywarp’s warp drive engaged, smooth as mercury. For an astrosecond, Skywarp thought this might be easy.

Then the pain hit, as his warp drive stuttered at the excess mass of his passengers and tried to draw on the one non-functional power cell. Skywarp grit his teeth and powered through, because he was a soldier. He might be dumb, but he was a _soldier_. 

He made it to the rooftop, Soundwave and Starscream's hands still clutched in his own. Then he blacked out.

\---

"You're underclocked," said Starscream. "You were constructed with a deficient risk awareness module. You're—"

"Stop shouting," whined Skywarp, trying to bury his head in the soft berth. “I got us out, didn’t I?”

"You nearly died!" yelled Starscream. Coolant was starting to trickle from his vents.

"Stop," said Thundercracker. "We're in the medbay."

Soundwave had taken them to his home base, Cell Sigma-Mauve, which had a nice big medbay and a nice big medic called Flatline who had given Skywarp a very stern lecture about trying to teleport multiple mechs with a busted internal power cell.

"You knew you were injured," said Starscream accusingly.

"It broke during Operation Snipehunt," said Skywarp. "You know, the _treason_ op? They weren't very interested in fixing it while I was in prison."

"You could fix it now," suggested Thundercracker.

"You heard Flatline." Skywarp shook his head. "I'd need surgery and recovery time and we're starting a war! I can't be lying around while you mechs get into trouble without me."

Starscream and Thundercracker didn't look very convinced, but at least the coolant was starting to dry in Starscream's vents.

"I just overdid it," said Skywarp. "And now I know my limitations a bit better, all right? I can port myself, and I _can_ port two mechs, just maybe not as far as that and maybe not if one of them has two extra mechs inside of him."

Starscream looked at Thundercracker, and Thundercracker opened his mouth like he was going to argue, so it was probably for the best that Flatline came in right then.

"I brought you some datapads," said Flatline. He had a gorgeous deep voice, and a beautiful selection of biolights that Skywarp just wanted to lick. "You'll have to stay at least a couple more groons before I'm comfortable releasing you, and I know it can get boring."

"Thanks, doc." Skywarp took the pads, and Flatline nodded at everyone and then turned to check on someone else.

"Close your mouth," Skywarp told Starscream. "You're drooling."

Starscream's jaw snapped shut, then opened again with outrage. " _I'm_ drooling. Me? You were the one _ogling_."

"I don't know what that word means," said Skywarp.

"Anyway it's not my fault," said Starscream. "Seekers are programmed to be promiscuous. It's necessary to create strong bonds between—"

Thundercracker kicked Starscream in the shin, and Starscream yelped, sounding more surprised than pained.

"Interface coding is individual, not by frametype," said Thundercracker. "Own it. You don't need functionism to frag."

Starscream scowled uncertainly.

"Flatline is pretty hot," said Skywarp, generously. "I'd frag him too."

"We're not talking about this," said Starscream. "We were talking about your incompetence."

"I'm sick of talking about that." Skywarp handed one of the datapads to Thundercracker. "Here, read me a story. My optic is fritzing again."

Thundercracker gave Skywarp a cool 'you don't fool me' look, but he onlined the datapad and started to read. Starscream made noises about leaving to find something useful to do, but either he couldn't think of anything or he didn't actually want to leave. Skywarp fell into recharge with both Thundercracker and Starscream sitting at his berthside, while Thundercracker read them a short story about an enforcer who fell for a thief.

It was nice. It almost felt like it was nicer because Skywarp cared about them.

\---

They came back to Cell Alpha-Green as either heroes or nuisances—they'd rescued Soundwave, but they'd also been absent for way longer than Airfoil had signed them out for, and everyone else had scrambled to cover their shifts. Most mechs split the difference and ignored the three of them unless ordered otherwise.

Swindle was the exception. The little merchant mech kept hanging around their table in the mess room, and cozying up to Starscream in the rec room when Skywarp was playing table cube. Starscream would wiggle his wings and widen his optics, and Swindle would bring him a few sample bottles of science stuff and ask pointed questions about when Skywarp and Thundercracker would be on shift and their berth room would be empty. Skywarp stopped playing table cube and started hanging around and revving his engine whenever Swindle tried to touch Starscream's wings. It didn't really help. Starscream was looking more and more annoyed, and Airfoil asked Skywarp if he was sure his repairs were settling properly or if he needed to get his engine checked out.

Skywarp decided to take drastic action. He went to a bar with Thundercracker.

"This is a bad idea," said Thundercracker.

"You said that last time," said Skywarp. "I restrategized."

"This one is worse," grumbled Thundercracker. "I'm gonna go before you get me—"

"Woah woah woah." Skywarp caught Thundercracker's wrist and dragged him back into his seat at their table. "I bought you three drinks, TC. Now you're gonna leave me alone with Swindle?"

"He's not even here," said Thundercracker. "And if he does show up, I'm not going to 'face him just because—"

"You don't have to 'face him," said Skywarp. "I know you don't like that. You just have to come with so he doesn't decide to knock me out and steal my warp drive." You could make a killing selling Skywarp's internals on the black market. Skywarp knew better than to tempt fate. Or to tempt a greedy credit-cruncher, as the case may be.

Thundercracker didn't look convinced, but he leaned back and took a sip of his free engex. Just in time, because Swindle walked through the door.

"Gentlemechs." Swindle sat, and leaned forward conspiratorially. "You said you had goods for me?"

"Uhh." Skywarp glance at Thundercracker, but Thundercracker looked just as confused. "No?"

" _I've got what you need_ ," quoted Swindle. " _What you've been dreaming of._ "

Now Thundercracker was looking judgmental.

"I was being metagorical," said Skywarp.

"Not a word," said Thundercracker.

"I saw you looking at Starscream." Skywarp pasted on an alluring sneer and leaned in. "Figured you'd like to get your hands on some wings."

Swindle looked at him assessingly. "They come off?"

"No!" Skywarp resisted the urge to bash his head against the table. "I want to interface. With you."

"Oh. Huh." A long pause, during which Skywarp resisted the urge to bash _Swindle's_ head against the table. "Both of you?"

"No." Thundercracker glanced sideways at Skywarp. Oh, the fragger was going to bail. Skywarp couldn't _believe_ —

"I like to watch," said Thundercracker.

"Well." Swindle leaned back in his chair and grinned so wide it almost consumed his face. "I don't put out that easy, but I'm intrigued. Buy me a drink and we'll see where this goes, flysparks. You'll pay for the room, right?"

Skywarp wasn't going to have any credits left by the end of the night. He hoped to the Pit this would work.

\---

Skywarp wasn't built for this.

He went off _easy_ and _often_ , it was part of his charm, and his sides were already aching from clamping down on his wiring every time an overload loomed. He was pretty sure it'd only been five kliks. Swindle was making it difficult, because he wasn't bad at 'facing. He was a little too focused on the wings, but he'd also found the spot on the back of Skywarp's neck that always drove Skywarp crazy. 

Which was bad, because Skywarp was trying very hard to stay sane.

He was pretty sure Thundercracker was laughing at him. All curled up in the armchair, one hand buried in his hip and his other hand conveniently hiding his face...

Swindle licked Skywarp's neck and Skywarp groaned.

"You done?" asked Swindle.

"Hey!" Seven kliks. At best. Skywarp was glad it was him under Swindle and not Starscream. "What do you mean, _you done_?"

"Did you overload?" asked Swindle. "I'm paying for this room by the groon."

"I said I'd pay you back when I get the credits." Skywarp rolled over so he could glare in Swindle's face. "And no, I didn't overload. Don't you know anything about seekers?"

Swindle looked like he'd heard a lot of things about seekers, but had the good sense not to repeat any of them to Skywarp's face.

"It takes a long time for a seeker to overload," said Skywarp. "Megacycles."

"Megacycles?" squeaked Swindle.

"And we do it quietly," said Skywarp. Thundercracker _was_ laughing, the glitch. "You might not even notice. I'll tell you when to stop."

" _Megacycles_?" yelped Swindle.

"Come on, Swindle." Skywarp curled his leg over Swindle's hip and pulled him close. "You're good for it, aren't you?"

Swindle whimpered, but put his hands back on Skywarp's wings like a good mech. Skywarp offlined his optics so he wouldn't have to watch Thundercracker having a fit.

\---

When Starscream finally took the plunge a cyber-week later and jumped Swindle's struts, he came back to their room with a glow and a whole box of pipettes and test-tubes. He'd got a better deal than Skywarp, who'd strained half his cables and his voicebox trying to overload as slowly and as quietly as possible. At least Thundercracker had given him a massage afterward, still sniggering over the faces Skywarp had made.

Thundercracker had taken a few image captures. They were pretty good faces.

Skywarp still felt like it was worth it, though, especially after patrol the next day. Starscream had shoved the goodie wrappers and gamepads out of Skywarp's berth, and was reclining on it with his arms stretched above his helm. 

"See something you like?" Starscream smirked demurely.

"You're talking to me again?" asked Skywarp, gravitating toward the berth.

"We talk all the time." Starscream drew his knees up, crossing his legs so one foot dangled just at Skywarp's chest-height.

"I mean _talking_." Skywarp gave into temptation and cupped Starscream's heel in one hand, pulling it up to his mouth.

"Yes, talking, that's what I—" Starscream gasped as Skywarp licked around and into his thruster. That was about it for coherency for the next groon, as Skywarp moved up Starscream's foot to his aft, mapping out every seam of it with his mouth. Starscream made a lot of noises, but none of them were words.

"Swindle put you in a good mood," said Skywarp, when Starscream was done.

Starscream hummed. "He had better glassware than I was expecting. And a longer attention span." 

"As long as mine?"

"No one's is as long as yours." Starscream rolled on top of Skywarp, his legs pressed between Skywarp's and his weight pinning Skywarp's wings to the berth. "What do I have to do to make you overload?"

"You've done it before." Skywarp arched as Starscream's fingers found their way into his turbines. "Did you forget already?"

"Usually you make yourself overload," said Starscream. "Are you close?"

“Yeah,” breathed Skywarp. “Yeah, yeah, just—"

Starscream managed to get past Skywarp's turbine blades without cutting himself, and pinched the delicate wires that sat behind the hub. Skywarp's frame shuddered as he overloaded, his optics dimming as he fought to keep them fixed on Starscream's interested face.

Starscream withdrew his fingers and sucked on a small nick that was dripping energon. Skywarp's turbines must have jittered a little during the overload.

"Sorry," said Skywarp insincerely. After that agonizing session with Swindle, it felt _so good_ when he didn't have to hold back.

Starscream shrugged. "What's it feel like?"

"What?" Skywarp stared at Starscream's slick fingers. Maybe Starscream would suck on Skywarp's fingers too, or, ooh, he could _nibble_ —

Starscream slapped Skywarp's thigh, just light enough that it could be classified as a love tap. "Tell me about overloading."

"It's, uh," Skywarp tried to cudgel his processor back into usefulness. "It's not that great."

Starscream smacked Skywarp's shoulder faring, and Skywarp yelped.

"All right, all right, it's amazing! Primus!"

"Just tell me what it's like." Starscream had his hand against his mouth again, hiding his expression. Skywarp tried to decide what Starscream needed to hear.

Starscream smacked him again with his free hand, curving his talons in so they pricked against Skywarp's armor. Skywarp tried to squirm away, but Starscream was heavy. "Stop it, you glitch."

"Stop stalling." Starscream changed tactics, pinching Skywarp's neck cable in a completely unsexy way. 

"I'm thinking!" Skywarp managed to get his hand around Starscream's wrist, pulling those sharp talons away from where they could do real damage. 

"You'll overheat your processor," said Starscream. "Just tell me how it feels." 

"Okay. All right. I think... It feels like someone's tightening a screw in your spark casing." 

Starscream's mouth twisted with confusion. "It hurts?"

"No, but it's _tense_ ," said Skywarp. "And it gets tighter and tighter until something snaps, and then it's like you're in freefall. Just riding the air currents down."

"Hmm." Starscream flexed his hand, and Skywarp reluctantly let him go.

"What does 'facing feel like to you?" asked Skywarp.

Starscream shrugged. Skywarp pinched him, and got a knee in his groin for his troubles. They wrestled briefly—Skywarp was taller, but Starscream had more mass and it could have gone very badly if Starscream wasn't always so nervous of getting his wings crimped or his nose tweaked. Skywarp feinted a headbutt, and Starscream actually fell over backwards to avoid getting hit.

"Someday I'm going to teach you how to fight dirty," said Skywarp, pinning Starscream to the berth.

"Someday I'm going to weld my rayguns to my frame," snarled Starscream. "Let me up."

"Fair's fair." Skywarp settled down against Starscream's frame, rubbing his hip plating against Starscream's cockpit. "I answered your question."

Starscream growled, but Skywarp wasn't budging. If Starscream really didn't want to answer his question, all he had to do was keep his voicebox offline.

"Good," said Starscream, at last. "Like little tingles of electricity under my plating."

"Mhm?" Skywarp shifted against Starscream again, working up a rhythm. "Like that? Good?"

"Y-yes." Starscream arched into the contact. "Good until it gets too much. Like—like—don't _stop_!"

"Don't worry." Skywarp kissed the top of Starscream's helm. "I'll stop when you tell me to, and not a klik before."

\---

"There was a defect," said Starscream, later, when their metal was slowly cooling in the chill of their unheated room. Being underground was awful for keeping things warm.

"Do you want a tarp?" asked Skywarp.

Starscream shook his head and shifted so more of his frame was under Skywarp, soaking up the heat of Skywarp's engine. "They changed the wiring insulation for my manufacturing run. It was supposed to prevent inefficient power surges."

"Oh." Skywarp groped over the side of the berth, hoping he could reach a tarp without getting up.

"There's at least fifty of us out there who can't overload," said Starscream. "You'd need a complete frame overhaul to fix it."

"Doesn't sound like it needs fixed." Skywarp pressed his mouth to Starscream's shoulder. Not a kiss, not quite. He wanted to touch every part of Starscream, shield his vulnerable and sharp parts from the world. "It's just a different kind of body."

"I didn't even know what an overload was until I went to Iacon," said Starscream. "Someone invited me to their dormitory, and I enjoyed myself. Very much. But then he stopped, and he asked me what was wrong. I told him nothing was wrong, and he said 'then what's taking so long?'"

Skywarp hugged Starscream a little tighter. "Was that your shuttle? Is that why you killed him?"

"I didn't kill him!" Starscream tensed like he was going to shove Skywarp away, but after a moment he just squirmed and twisted so he was lying on his side, his face pressed against Skywarp's helm vents. "No," Starscream whispered. "He was more patient than that. Patient enough to put up with me."

All right, the shuttle was fine. But Skywarp wanted to murder every mech who'd ever touched Starscream and made him feel like he needed to be 'put up with.' 

"You're perfect," said Skywarp. "You're clever and sexy and you've got stamina for _days_ , any mech should be thrilled to have you in their berth."

"Shut up," said Starscream, but he tipped his helm up and looked at Skywarp sideways, like he couldn't wait for Skywarp to continue.

“Sometimes the things mechs say get stuck in your processor.” Skywarp shrugged. “I can still hear my drill-master yelling _idiot_ every time I missed a target, and I passed basic training vorns and vorns ago. You just have to let it go. You know yourself better than anyone else.”

Starscream hummed thoughtfully, rubbing his cheek against the side of Skywarp’s helm, and it was easy to turn and meet Starscream’s mouth. They kissed, long and deep and slow, breathing into each other's mouths.

Skywarp forgot about the tarp until TC finally came back to the room and dropped one on his head.

\---

Skywarp fragged three more of Starscream's crushes over the next few cyber-weeks. Flatline, obviously. Some neutral bartender who made Starscream's favorite jet fuel cocktails, Gold-something. Rumble.

Starscream had eclectic taste, but Skywarp had to admit Rumble had been worth fragging. It'd been two orns ago, and Skywarp's spark casing was still tingling from when Rumble had turned up the vibrations.

Skywarp was having a good time, because he got to frag interesting mechs and feel the warm glow of providing for Starscream. TC was having a good time, because he kept tagging along to watch. Starscream was having a _great_ time, as far as Skywarp could tell. Better yet, seekers were starting to develop a reputation for being difficult to please, which meant the lazy mechs didn't even try and the ambitious mechs treated it like a challenge.

Skywarp was feeling pretty smug.

"Pride comes before a fall," said Thundercracker.

Skywarp sipped his cube. "What's that from, the Covenant? I've got thrusters, I'm not gonna fall."

"It's not from the _Covenant_ ," said Thundercracker, scandalized, which probably meant it was from something important. Skywarp never found out what, because that's when Megatron walked into the mess.

Skywarp had seen him once before. He'd paid almost a whole meta-cycle's wages to get into the nosebleed seats of the arena for a title match. Megatron had been a tiny grey speck on the ground, and a larger-than-life monster on the vidscreens. Skywarp had bought a poster afterward, with the last of his paycheck, and waited in line to get it signed for three hours before giving up and going home. Obviously he hadn't joined the Decepticons because of Megatron—he'd joined them because he knew he wouldn't be able to escape the enforcers for long on his own. But he'd been glad he'd been sprung by the Decepticons and not the Mortilus cult, or the Spawn of Unicron, or any of the other dumber rebel groups. The Decepticons had Megatron, and someone as cool as Megatron had to be on to a good thing.

Thundercracker and Starscream liked to talk about Megatron's speeches and his poetry and whatever. Skywarp had told them he'd read all of _Towards Peace_. He'd read the first five pages, anyway.

He wished there was an audio version, now that he heard Megatron speaking. He was a pretty good talker, nice deep voice and lots of big ideas. He said Cell Alpha-Green had been doing an excellent job of contributing to The Cause. You could hear the capital letters.

Skywarp glanced over at TC, who looked rapt. Then he looked over at Starscream, who was sitting all the way across the mess with Airfoil.

Starscream looked _smoldering_.

Ohh, slag.

\---

"I'm not going to seduce Megatron," said Skywarp.

TC choked on his energon. "You what?"

"I'm not, I said!" Skywarp scowled. "But Starscream is, so I have to—"

"Starscream's _what_?" 

"Keep your voice down," hissed Skywarp. "I'm trying to strategize, and you're drawing attention!"

"You're the one yelling about seducing Megatron," said Thundercracker.

"I'm not yelling, you're—"

"Hello," said Megatron, and Skywarp could feel his spark stop.

Unfortunately, it was just a feeling and not a real thing that happened, so Skywarp still had to turn and look at Megatron and deal with the situation.

"Hello," said Skywarp. "Hello. Sir?"

Thundercracker made a noise like a minibot being crushed by a triple-changer.

"You're Starscream's roommates," said Megatron. "Skywarp and Thundercracker, yes?"

Skywarp nodded. He'd already used up every word he knew.

"May I sit?" asked Megatron.

Skywarp nodded again. His head was going to come off.

"I've heard good things about you," said Megatron. "You have the best mission success rate for any group of fliers in the Decepticons, did you know that?"

Skywarp shook his head. Maybe it was because Soundwave kept requesting them. Soundwave was pretty good at getting things done.

Thundercracker hadn't made any more noises. Skywarp glanced over to make sure he wasn't dead, but Thundercracker was still venting, sitting ramrod straight with his optics fixed on Megatron's face.

"A power trine," said Megatron. "The three deadliest seekers on Cybertron. A teleporter, a sonic weapon, and a rebel from the Iaconian Academy. I'm _very_ impressed."

Skywarp nodded. Megatron watched him, like he was expecting something more. It took Skywarp three tries, but he finally managed to engage his voice box. "Thank you? We’re not really a trine."

"Oh?" Megatron looked mildly curious. "But you work so well together. We've been missing crucial air support in headquarters since Updraft was assassinated. Would you be interested in working more directly under my command?"

Skywarp heard himself say the words without any control over them whatsoever. "Of course, sir! I'd love to be under you."

Thundercracker made a high-pitched noise just within the range of mechanical hearing and kicked Skywarp under the table. Megatron's optics gleamed and he leaned forward.

"I've heard a lot about seekers recently," he murmured. "I'm interested to experience your abilities first hand."

"Oh?" Skywarp watched as his own hand reached out and brushed against Megatron's forearm. "What have you heard?"

"That you're, how shall I put this..." Megatron cocked his head. "Difficult to satisfy."

"But worth it," said Skywarp’s voice box. "If you've got what it takes."

Megatron leant further over the table, until his face was scant microns away from Skywarp's own. "I think you'll find I have everything you—"

Something _yanked_ on Skywarp's wing, and he yelped as he scrambled out of his seat to avoid falling.

"I'm sorry, mighty Megatron," said Starscream. "I just need to borrow Skywarp and Thundercracker. Important conference."

Megatron sat back. "Of course. It was a pleasure, Skywarp. I look forward to future conversations with all three of you."

Starscream hauled Skywarp away, Thundercracker trailing after them.

Megatron actually looked _disappointed_.

\---

"You're not allowed to seduce Megatron," said Starscream, once they were out of the mess and in the very private public corridor.

Skywarp jerked out of his grip. "I wasn't!"

“You kind of were,” said Thundercracker.

"I saw the way he was looking at you." Starscream sneered.

"It's not my fault if he's into this," said Skywarp.

"He didn't look _into it_ , idiot, he looked like a minion had started throwing himself at his feet and he was trying to decide how to politely step over you."

"Stop being a gear shaft," snapped Skywarp. "We were just chatting."

"Just chatting? Was it just chatting when you fragged Swindle? Or Rumble? Or Goldmine?"

Skywarp could feel the energon rushing to his processor and thrusters, fueling his fight or flight response. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Didn't expect me to find out, did you?" Starscream stepped into Skywarp's space, hot air venting across Skywarp's plating when Skywarp refused to step back. "Too bad for you that Goldmine has a big mouth."

"He doesn't have any mouth," said Skywarp. "Just a little intake."

"That's not what I meant!" Starscream ground his teeth, the screech of metal undercut by the angry revving of his engine and the trickles of coolant beginning to drip out of his vents. "He told me. Told me what you'd been doing. Told me I wasn't as good in the berth as my gatekeeper."

Skywarp winced and found himself giving up ground. Starscream stalked after him, until Skywarp's wings hit the wall and Starscream was jabbing his pointer talon in Skywarp's face.

"Stay away from Megatron," said Starscream. "Maybe I'll let you have him after _I'm_ finished with him, this time."

"It's not—" Skywarp's voicebox glitched and he had to reset it. "I don't want him, Starscream, I was just trying to help—"

"I don't want your help," said Starscream. "You're an underclocked, uneducated grunt who thinks you _own_ me just because I put up with your _groping_."

Skywarp's engine snarled, and he bared his teeth at Starscream. He'd done all of this for Starscream, and this is what he got in return?

"That's enough," said Thundercracker. "Come on, let's go back to the room."

"You're desperate for me to touch you," said Skywarp. "I'm the only one who knows what you need. And you just hate that, don't you? Somebody knowing? Someone you can't lie to?" 

"Stop this," said Thundercracker. "Just calm down and—"

"You want to talk about lying?" Starscream laughed, high and careless. "Everyone knows you can't read. No one believes there's anything wrong with your optics."

Something stuttered in Skywarp's processor, a line of code that wouldn't complete. He surged forward, pushing Starscream away. "Frag you! No one would even _look_ at you, if it weren't for me. You'd still be trying to convince Blitzwing you could get off in three kliks flat, and crying yourself to recharge every night because you didn't have any friends."

Starscream kneed him in the cockpit. Skywarp went for the throat. After that it was a blur until Thundercracker got in between them and dragged Skywarp away.

Starscream was lying on the floor, face and hands covered in energon. He sneered at Skywarp, and Skywarp felt a dark curl of satisfaction when he realized Starscream was missing a tooth.

"I'm never working with you again," said Starscream. "Either of you. Find yourself a new roommate.”

"No problem," said Skywarp, thickly. He'd bitten his tongue when Starscream punched him in the jaw. "Good luck finding anyone else who'll fly with you. Maybe if you kiss their thrusters they'll ignore your—"

Thundercracker put his hand over Skywarp's mouth. Starscream's face was somehow both incandescent with embarrassment and pinched tight with rage, but he got up and left. If he said anything else, Skywarp couldn't hear it past the ringing in his audials.

"I can't believe him," said Skywarp, when Thundercracker finally let him go. "Did you hear what he said to me?"

Thundercracker looked at Skywarp with something that didn't look at all like unconditional friendship and support. "Yeah, you aft. I heard the whole thing."

\---

Skywarp's berth was cold. And his jaw hurt.

At some point he'd gotten used to falling into recharge with his face smushed against Starscream's cockpit, or with Thundercracker pressed against his wings. Stupid. Skywarp should have known he was the only mech he could rely on.

Starscream had taken all of his stuff and disappeared to some other room. Skywarp didn't know where—there weren't any free berthrooms and he couldn't see Starscream sleeping on the rec room couch. Thundercracker's stuff was still here, but he'd gone out a few groons ago and hadn't come back.

Skywarp lay on his back and contemplated his new, lonely existence. It sucked. Tomorrow he'd get some more tarps and a pain patch. Then he could be lonely in comfort.

It was actually a relief when the sirens started going off.

There was a siren that meant 'fire,' and one that meant 'unknown intruder,' and one that meant 'the fragging enforcers found us.' Soundwave had set up the whole security system when he was visiting for an op. Skywarp could never remember which siren meant what, but it was pretty obvious as soon as he stuck his helm out of his room and nearly got shot by a government goon. Skywarp teleported on instinct and landed on top of the mech, knocking him off balance long enough that Skywarp could grab his blaster. One shot into the mech's back, turn, suppression fire at the three enforcers advancing down the hallway, turn, suppression fire at the _five_ enforcers coming the other way, brief panic, and Skywarp teleported into the supply closet across the hall.

Thundercracker yelped and tried to stab Skywarp with a detailing brush.

"Ow!" Skywarp rubbed paint out of his optics. "Watch it! What are you doing in here?"

"Sorry!" 

"Forget it, there's a million law-bots out there." Skywarp gestured with the blaster. "We need to find Airfoil and—"

Skywarp’s optics finally cleared, and he was staring right into Starscream's face. Starscream’s angry, freshly detailed face.

"I thought you'd ditched us," said Skywarp.

"I changed my mind," said Starscream, and for a second Skywarp could feel traitorous hope like a warm updraft under his wings. "I've ditched _you_ ," continued Starscream. "Thundercracker can stay."

"Oh, frag you," said Skywarp.

"Not anymore." Starscream jerked his chin up. "I've decided to stop wasting my time and my talents on mechs who don't respect me."

" _I_ don't respect you?" snarled Skywarp. "I'm the only one who bothered to—"

Something slammed into the door. Skywarp flinched so hard he nearly snapped the blaster in half.

"Enforcers outside." Thundercracker pulled his own blaster from his subspace and started kicking back the nest of tarps that Starscream had apparently been planning to recharge on. 

"Right," said Skywarp. "Right. Okay, stay here, I'll port to the command room and—"

"Give me your blaster," said Starscream, already reaching for it.

Skywarp pulled back. "No!"

"Yes." Starscream's hand closed around the muzzle. "You'll need both hands free if you're taking us with you. You said you can carry two mechs, right?"

\---

It took Skywarp two jumps to get to the command room while pulling Starscream and Thundercracker with him, and his functioning power cells burned with the effort. Skywarp's fans were whining even at the first stop, vents dumping heat and coolant out of his frame. Thundercracker and Starscream provided covering fire for the twenty astro-seconds Skywarp needed to recover. There were dozens of enforcers, and blaster bolts just grounded against their riot gear unless you got really lucky and hit a seam. Starscream had managed to knock a couple of them over and Thundercracker had been hit in the wing before Skywarp managed to get his slag together and teleport them the rest of the way to the command room.

Which looked like a disaster.

Skywarp had hoped Airfoil would have barricaded it against the enforcers, but there had to be at least a squadron of them in here. The security monitors were flashing useless red intruder alerts, reflecting off the blaster a law-bot was aiming at Airfoil—

Skywarp dropped Thundercracker and Starscream's hands and ported over, smashing his shoulder against the enforcer's arm to break her aim. The enforcer snarled and tried to shake Skywarp off, but Skywarp fired one of his thrusters into the enforcer's knee and they both went down in a heap. Energon was thrumming in his audials, but he could dimly pick up the sound of blaster fire whizzing over his helm. He concentrated on the enforcer in front of him, trying to get her blaster and keep her from using it on him.

"Get back!" yelled Airfoil, and Skywarp threw himself away just before Airfoil fired her raygun, the laser hitting the enforcer right at the seam between her helm and her neck-cables. Energon spattered all over Skywarp's front, but he took the enforcer's blaster from her clutching dead fingers. There would be more energon before they were done.

"All right?" he asked.

Stupid question. Airfoil fired at another enforcer that was trying to organize a group to take them down. One of Airfoil's arms was hanging limply, like her wiring was too damaged to respond.

"Get Megatron out of here," she said.

"Where is he?" asked Skywarp.

"He's—"

Someone _roared_. Skywarp turned and saw Megatron go down under fully half the functioning enforcers, each of them armed with a energy-knife. Starscream flew at them, half-transformed so that his nosecone and wings slammed into one enforcer while he blindly fired his blaster at another. Thundercracker was right behind him, shooting at any enforcer that tried to fight Starscream off.

"Go!" snarled Airfoil, and Skywarp ported himself into the middle of the mess.

He couldn't get Megatron away unless they could get the enforcers off, so Skywarp kicked and bit and did everything he could while the other Decepticons made better use of their blasters or giant gladiator frames. Skywarp took a knife to the side, but he managed to get his fingers into the enforcer's arm joint before the enforcer could pull the knife out. Megatron noticed and wrapped his hands around the enforcer's waist, yanking until the enforcer's shoulder cabling _tore_ and the enforcer let go of the knife with a sob. There was energon everywhere, but most of Skywarp's was being held in by the hilt of the knife. He couldn't feel the pain, everything was bright and red and crystalline—

"You're clear!" yelled Starscream, fully back in bipedal mode and firing two blasters at once. "Go!"

"Coordinates," said Skywarp.

"Just get him into the hall, keep jumping until you're in the street!" Starscream fired at an enforcer who was thinking about leaping back into the fray.

"The cops are all over this place." Skywarp's voice sounded dull. Had his vocalizer been hit? Maybe it was his audials. "Gimme the coordinates to another cell."

"Forty-five sixty-two," began Megatron.

"Shut up," hissed Starscream. "You can't jump that far, Skywarp, you'll kill yourself."

"Don't listen to him," said Skywarp. "I'm a soldier, I can do it. Give me the coordinates."

"Forty-five sixty-two," repeated Megatron, "seven zero three, by fifteen eighty—"

Skywarp wrapped his hand around Megatron's ankle—when had he fallen over? Didn't matter—and input the coordinates. He dumped all his reserves into his warp engine, and his optics dimmed.

"Hey," he murmured. "Starscream, give me your hand."

"Just go," said Starscream. "We'll cover you."

"Nah," said Skywarp. "Grab TC by the wing and give me your hand."

"You're going to die, you idiot," snapped Starscream. "You can't take this many mechs, and you can't jump this far!"

"Fine," said Skywarp. "But give me your fragging hand!"

Starscream was probably glaring daggers at Skywarp, but the joke was on him because Skywarp couldn't see slag. Couldn't hear slag either, the energon thrumming in his audial getting deeper and louder. Skywarp could just barely feel Starscream's fingers closing around his wrist before he engaged his warp drive.

\---

Something was beeping, steadily and at a really annoying pitch. Something, probably not the same thing, was squeezing his hand, tight enough to be painful. Skywarp tried to squirm away and cover his audials.

"Lie still," murmured Starscream. "You're going to hurt yourself."

Skywarp settled, reluctantly. Starscream's voice was very gentle, and his claws were digging into the back of Skywarp's hand. "How long have I got?" asked Skywarp.

"What?"

"You're being nice to me, so I figure I'm dying. Is my spark giving out?"

"You're so stu—" Starscream's hand squeezed Skywarp's as he cut himself off. "You're going to be fine."

Skywarp tried to perform a systems check, but the operation kept sliding out of his queue. He onlined his optics instead, with great effort. His visuals were blurry and oddly vibrant—his calibration must be all out of wack. He could still see the close walls of the room, and the blinking support machines he was hooked up to. He glanced up to find Starscream leaning over him, a blurry mass of scarlet, white, and gray.

"TC?" asked Skywarp.

"Flatline's working on his wings," said Starscream. Skywarp must have winced, because Starscream continued: "He'll be fine, he'll just be bored and twitchy while he waits to recover. No flying for three cyber-weeks."

"We made it to headquarters." Skywarp relaxed against the surprisingly soft berth. "Megatron?"

"Fine." Starscream sat back, becoming blurrier as he moved away. "He offered us a promotion."

"Promotion?" Skywarp's optics flickered as they tried to reset. Everything was still blurry. "Not just a transfer? I thought the Decepticons didn't believe in functionist military hierarchy. Figured you’d have to beat Airfoil in mortal combat to seize control of the cell."

Starscream ignored him. "Megatron wants to develop a real air force, instead of relying on whatever cell has a concentration of flight frames. He's seen us work with Soundwave. He thinks we'd be inspirational leaders for the new wings of the Decepticon army."

"We’d be officers?" Skywarp had never considered becoming officer. Officers were forged. "What does TC think?"

"He's in surgery," Starscream reminded Skywarp. "I talked to him before Flatline sedated him, but we—" Starscream hesitated. "We talked about something else."

"Alright, what about Airfoil?"

"Megatron didn't ask Airfoil, he asked me. She's busy moving Cell Alpha-Green into its new uncompromised and undemolished location."

"Huh. Okay. Sounds like fun. You like bossing people around, and I'll—" Skywarp's memory unit shuddered and dumped the last day's events into his foreground processing. "I'll. Uh. Congratulate whoever you take with you, I guess. As your third."

"I don’t want a new third," said Starscream.

"I was being a slag merchant," said Skywarp. "You're not going to have any problems finding someone to fly with you. You could get a real trine, too, not just roommates. You're about to become Air Commander or whatever, you'll have your pick of seekers. Not that you need the help, but—"

"Megatron offered the promotion to all three of us," insisted Starscream.

"He'll understand," said Skywarp. "Just tell him that I'm an unreasonable aft, and—"

"You saved his life," said Starscream.

"I'm a dumb grunt," said Skywarp. "That's what dumb grunts do."

"Shut up!" Starscream's voice finally rose out of its forced softness, gaining the edge of static that Skywarp knew and loved. "You're not dumb! Your processor is at least three times more powerful than the average forged mech’s, even if you mostly use it for calculating coordinates and fragging everyone I like."

Skywarp winced, which pulled on his side and hurt like he was getting stabbed again. "I'm really sorry about that. It seemed like a good idea at the time. To me. Thundercracker thought it was a terrible idea, which I guess should have been a warning sign." 

Starscream didn't say anything. Skywarp waited a few astro-seconds and his optics reset again, finally refocusing. 

Starscream was crying. Coolant was _pouring_ out of his vents, more than Skywarp had ever seen.

"Oh, frag." Skywarp tried to sit up, but his side wrenched again. "I'm sorry! Really! Don't be mad, I can't fight! I'm injured!"

"I'm not angry, you—you—Unicron-kisser!" Starscream rubbed ineffectually at his vents. "I thought you were dying!"

"Oh." Skywarp looked down at his frame. His side was a mass of patches and welds, and his paint was stripped in wide streaks. "I'm not, though."

"Good!" Starscream voice was even higher-pitched than before, and coolant was dripping on the berth. "I don't want new trinemates!"

"We're not really trine, though," said Skywarp. "I tried to tell Megatron. Just a bunch of seekers Airfoil shoved in a room—"

Starscream growled and seized Skywarp's helm, pulling him up into a headlock. Or possibly a hug. "You're my trine. Mine. We'll do the claiming when you and Thundercracker are well enough to fly."

Skywarp's processor stuttered again.

"Unless you don't want to?" Starscream eased back a little, optics already narrowing with hurt.

Skywarp kissed him. His teeth clicked against Starscream's as he threw himself into it, but Starscream kissed back, open and perfect.

After a klick, Skywarp pulled away. "Let me down, my side hurts."

Starscream eased Skywarp back down to the berth, then even allowed himself to be coaxed into slumping across Skywarp's chest. Skywarp stroked Starscream's helm and hoped that the saline from the last drips of coolant wouldn't damage any of his repairs.

"I'm sorry I called you stupid," said Starscream. "I knew it would hurt, and I wanted it to hurt. But you’re not."

"I know what I am," said Skywarp. "And you were right, I'm not great at the reading thing."

"That's not the point." Starscream's hand tightened against Skywarp's hip. "Flatline replaced your dead power cell, since he already had to do surgery. And I told him about your optic, and he replaced that too."

Skywarp cycled his optics again. Huh. Maybe that vibrant color wasn't going away. Maybe that was how the world was supposed to look.

"I'm sorry I tried to run your life instead of talking to you," said Skywarp. "And I'm sorry I said all that stupid nonsense about your personality."

"You're not stupid," insisted Starscream.

"The nonsense was still stupid."

Starscream grunted. "I suppose you actually think I'm amazing."

"Well, yeah," said Skywarp without thinking about it. "That's why I love you."

Starscream jerked away, looking at Skywarp with wide, bright optics. The coolant had stopped flowing, but it was drying in streaks down his face and neck.

"Forget I said that," said Skywarp.

"No," said Starscream.

"I'm trying to apologize, not dump more slag on you," said Skywarp. "I've been acting really badly, and—"

"Yes," agreed Starscream. "You love me?"

"That's not important right now," insisted Skywarp. "You should know you don't need me, I was acting like a jealous—"

"Because you love me," said Starscream.

"That doesn't make it okay," said Skywarp.

"No." Starscream reached for Skywarp's hand again. "If you ever interface with someone for _training purposes_ without asking me first, I'm going to break your fingers."

Skywarp squeezed Starscream's hand. "Fair. Reasonable."

"I thought you were going to die.” Starscream laid his helm back down on Skywarp's chest. “And I thought—ugh, never mind, it’s ridiculous.”

“What?” asked Skywarp. “Come on, tell me.”

“I thought, at least if you were alive we could have talked about it,” said Starscream. “And you wouldn’t have died thinking I hated you.”

Oh, slag, now Skywarp was going to cry. He took a shuddering vent, then another. "I'm not going to stop being a glitch right away." Skywarp didn't like saying it, but he knew it was true. "Not even if you trine with me."

"No," agreed Starscream. "And eventually you're going to remember all the things you don't love about me."

"Like what?"

"Not now." Starscream laid his helm back down on Skywarp's chest. "Let’s just enjoy the grace period."

The machines beeped unevenly, and Skywarp’s side ached, but his emotional systems were singing.

\---

"Move over," said Thundercracker.

"Mghwhuh?" mumbled Skywarp.

"Flatline released me, my wings hurt, and I want to cuddle." Thundercracker nudged Skywarp as he tried to crawl into the minimal space left in the berth. "Move over."

Skywarp tried to shift sideways without dislodging Starscream. Luckily Thundercracker didn’t actually want to lie on the berth itself. He seemed perfectly happy just draping himself over the uninjured parts of Skywarp that Starscream wasn't already using as a pillow.

"Starscream wants to trine," said Skywarp. Now that he was awake, the words burst out of him, too loud for the stillness of the medbay.

"Finally," muttered Thundercracker.

"Hm?" Starscream onlined one optic. "Thundercracker?"

"He’s fine." Skywarp patted Starscream's shoulder. "Recharge."

"Hmm." Starscream offlined the optic. "Meant to tell you. Megatron wants a foursome."

"What?" said Skywarp, too loud again.

"What?" yelped Thundercracker, much, much too loud.

“I said maybe once you two were out of medbay.” Starscream yawned. “He can make do with me until then.”

“What do you mean, _make do_?” asked Skywarp.

“I’m not going to _frag Megatron_ ,” said Thundercracker.

“No, I am,” said Starscream. “For exactly as long as I want. And if you’re very good, I might let you come and watch while you’re recovering. Now hush, I need my recharge. I’m planning to be busy tomorrow.”

Skywarp had questions. Many questions, some of which might even be okay to ask.

But he let Starscream recharge. They’d have plenty of time to talk in the morning.

“You’ve created a monster,” whispered Thundercracker.

“The monster was already here,” said Skywarp, turning his head to murmur into Thundercracker's audial. “He’s just owning it now.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this fic, consider sharing it on [Tumblr](http://neveralarch.tumblr.com/post/183083350534/wired-neveralarch-transformers-generation-one), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/neveralarch/status/1100572072546394112), or [DW](https://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/98903.html).


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